Description: In this World War II action-thriller, the
British High Command finds itself in the thick of a huge
dilemma when it is realized that they have long been
infiltrated by spies form a German intelligence group. This
all happens during the preliminary stages of the Battle of
Britain.

Nine years before his WWII classic 'Inglorious Bastards',
Enzo Castellari virtually invented the 'Macaroni Combat'
genre with this over-the-top saga of valor, vengeance and
machine- gun mayhem. Hollywood legend Van Johnson ('The Caine Mutiny') and Frederick Stafford (Hitchcock's 'Topaz')
star as military officers pursuing a merciless team of Nazi
saboteurs through war-ravaged London, featuring Castellari's
jaw-dropping recreations of the evacuation of Dunkirk, the
Battle Of Britain and more. Francisco Rabal ('Nightmare
City'), Ida Galli ('The Psychic') and Luigi Pistilli ('The
Good, the Bad & the Ugly') co-star in this explosive epic –
also known as 'Battle Squadron' – now restored on Blu-ray
for the first time ever in the U.S!

The Film:

Enzo initially delivers some solid action and does so with impressive
scale, particularly the evacuation at Dunkirk. There are lots of boats,
soldiers and planes and the magnitude of Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk is
nicely conveyed. Other aspects are less successful such as the extended
and poorly conceived dogfight over London that ends the film. It’s an
unconvincing mélange of models and close up shots of Van Johnson that’s
much too long considering the movie was really built around Captain Paul
fighting German infiltrators. Enzo also occasionally uses a split screen
approach that seems pointlessly arty and suffers badly unless you are
watching a widescreen print. Considering how much fun his more well
known
The Inglorious Bastards was, Enzo’s Eagles Over London
can’t help but suffer by comparison, but it still manages to deliver a
decent amount of war-related carnage (one Nazi even kills a guy in a
sauna) and looks like a much more expensive production than it probably
was.

Eagles Over Londonfares better
on
Blu-ray
than Severin's other Castellari film to 1080P;
The Inglorious Bastards. I'd say it is still
fairly weak and has inconsistencies but the image quality
seems a notch superior to the first offering. This
is only single-layered and colors are bland with drab greens
but I suspect it is accurate to the source - which may be
the best available. Detail has strong moments but softness
as well - it really varies. Noise is only minutely visible
as is grain - but the latter is nice to see when it does
make its presence known. The lighting of the film is suspect
and I'll assume this reflects in the transfer's contrast.
The cinematography has some interesting angles and
split-screens, through triggers etc. When these are captured
in high-definition it kind of brings out their uniqueness.
The
Blu-ray
is most probably a decent representation of Eagles Over London
but fans shouldn't expect too much - this is easily noted as
HD - superior to SD-DVD - but depth and texture are not
abundantly apparent.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

Audio :

No boost here - its a
bland Dolby 2.0 channel track with the fronts being used exclusively.
The quality is scratching, poor high end and exhibits no depth or range.
I'd say this is even weaker than the image but surprisingly suitable for
the film's nostalgic cache. I'll assume a lossless option would have
required some extensive restoration although making this linear PCM may
have improved it a certain degree although battle/bombing scenes do pick
up the bass a bit.

There are no subtitles and my Momitsu
has identified
it as being a region FREE disc playable on
Blu-ray
machines worldwide.

Extras :

No commentary
but we get similar supplements to the Inglorious
Blu-ray.
First off is “Eagles Over Los Angeles” - a 16.5 minute Q+A with
an exuberant Tarantino as host at the Silent Movie Theater from May 6th,
2008 - and the director/writer also has a one-on-one Enzo G. Castellari
for 15-minutes rated as 'Part 2' (the first part being a half-hour on
Severin's Inglorious package) There is a mini-deleted scene in
German with English for 32 seconds in HD! and HD trailers for both
Eagles and Inglorious.

BOTTOM LINE: These original Italian war films have their own charisma and appeal
with a certain following. I wasn't that much into
Inglorious but appreciated this a bit more - with everything being a bit more
polished and cohesive. It's actually a decent
war-adventure-thriller in its own right and kind of cool to
have on
Blu-ray. I'd like to encourage Severin with their projects - exposing
these clandestine Italian flics to HD audiences. I got into
this film and had some fun - I think many others will to.

Gary Tooze

October 8th, 2009

About the Reviewer:
Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film
since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was
around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my
horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out
new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500
DVDs and have reviewed over 3500 myself. I appreciate my
discussion Listserv for furthering my film
education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver.
Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our
Amazon links.

Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who
focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I
find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction. So be
it, but film will always be my first love and I list my
favorites on the old YMdb site now accessible
HERE.